


All Ameri-King Werewolf

by Answrs



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Blood and Injury, Gen, Illustrated, Werewolf Arthur, american versus european werewolves, arthur has a bad time (TM), first transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 13:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14955912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Answrs/pseuds/Answrs
Summary: After only an hour, Lewis can’t take it anymore and phases through into the room. Arth-the wolf shouldn’t be able to escape the wrought iron cage, and if by some miracle he had the ghost could phase back out just as fast.He wishes he’d never left the room.





	All Ameri-King Werewolf

**Author's Note:**

> Originally based off of a tumblr post, on the differences between American and European werewolves  
> http://answrs.tumblr.com/post/174834446295/idiopathicsmile-idiopathicsmile-emilysidhe
> 
> This is also posted on tumblr!  
> http://answrs.tumblr.com/post/174834643665/all-ameri-king-werewolf
> 
>  
> 
> Illustration linked at the bottom for spoilers.

Arthur is captured, forcibly bitten by a chained up wolf when a cult wants to have a second, more violent beast under their control. He’s rescued as the group follows the agonized screams, nasties bashed and tied up while the wolf’s put under by a sleep spell.

Arthur’s delirious with fever the next few days as the bite takes effect and the curse settles in. He swears he can feel it coursing through his bloodstream vein by vein, spreading from the deep wound on his side. Then for the rest of the month he’s skittering around, flinching away from all of them before wincing as pain flares from the wrapped injury.

By the week of the full moon he’s a complete wreck of nerves, the others not hiding their dread nearly as well as they think they are either. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone, not Vivi, Mystery, even Lewis. (They don’t know for sure that another supernatural can’t hurt a ghost and he very much doesn’t want to find out the hard way.) But according to Vivi’s books and backed up by what little else Mystery knows of the curse, avoiding the transformation can and will quickly lead a werewolf to madness. So when the night finally comes there’s a short, barred window cut into the thick stone of a small, doorless room, an even smaller cage inside it at Arthur’s insistence and Lewis’s great discomfort, set directly in the light’s path.

* * *

The wolf doesn’t know who, what, why it’s there, just that it’s hurt and trapped and  _no no too small too small get out **now**_.

It doesn’t have Arthur’s consciousness, but also has no memory of itself prior since, well, it had never  _been_  before tonight.

But none of that matters,

It needs  _ **OUT**_.

* * *

After only an hour, Lewis can’t take it anymore and phases through into the room. Arth- _the wolf_ shouldn’t be able to escape the wrought iron cage, and if by some miracle he had the ghost could phase back out just as fast.

_He wishes he’d never left the room._

There’s blood on its side where the bandages have fallen off and wound reopened with the thrashing. Paw, nails torn up from first clawing at the ground during transformation, then prying at the bars. It’s near foaming at the mouth with bloody jaws still gnawing desperately at the metal bars of the cage. Its forehead is even split open from the few futile attempts to leap and headbutt the wall of the tiny container. It shows, the rolled back, unfocused eyes and wobblyness as it pauses increasingly to pant, the morbid mixture oozing down its jaw like molasses.

The wolf triples its efforts when Lewis enters, a terrified animal cornered and in pain, suddenly faced by a giant of a human appearing from nothing inside the cage of his cage.

With nary a thought Lewis immediately disappears the bars from around Arthur, horrified by how much damage he’s done to himself already trying to get out.

He thinks it must really be Arthur in there at first, considering its cowering and utter lack of aggression towards him, but as it backs into the furthest corner from the ghost there’s no recognition in those eyes when they finally focus on him. Just plain outright confusion and utter terror, fear even worse than that cursed first reunion in the mansion.

He tries to reach out, offer a piece of jerky to the cowering form, tail tucked so tightly it looks like it doesn’t even have one. A peace offering, anything to ease the mind of the poor creature, and it’s just so skinny (Arthur couldn’t really be this tiny, could he? Sure he was light, but the heaving and wheezing breaths highlight ribs and he can’t have-) Lewis would bring an entire deer down here, regardless how much Arthur would hate having eaten raw meat, if it would quell that terror for even a moment…

There’s a pregnant pause, the wolf flickering eyes back and forth between the hulking spirit and the sliver of food, weighing the cost against the reward.

Lewis would cheer if he wasn’t holding his nonexistent breath as the creature crawls unsteadily forward, ears pinned and belly scraping the stone floor with every movement. He tries to convince himself the wobbling is just from the missing leg, steadfastly not looking at the self inflicted wounds, wounds he had allowed Arthur to give himself.   
  


It sniffs the offered hand, but behind the scent of dried meat the man’s smell overwhelms the poor pup. It’s a smell of nothing, of death, of fire and peppers and smoke, and suddenly a cerebral memory surfaces, one its own but not, of terror and flames and being hunted, chased, and he needs to  _ **g e t  a w a y**_

* * *

Lewis yells for Mystery not knowing what to do and panicking and Arthur is hurting himself trying to escape from him and is afraid of him and help Mystery do something please!

Mystery bursts through the wall, a gaping hole exploding through the heavy stone between the kitchen and doorless room. (Despite both spirits’ prior warnings Vivi pokes her head through, worriedly peering in from just outside the hole.)

The wolf obviously doesn’t take this new terrifying display well and becomes even more frantic, addled enough it actually runs  _towards_ the terrifying creature. With a sudden burst of speed it somehow clears the kitsune, sailing towards freedom.

Unfortunately however, there’s something  _very important_  in its way. Mystery turns heel to see the wolf dashing straight towards a terrified Vivi. Misjudging both intentions, he lunges at the fleeing canine, jaws clamping around the transformed mechanic’s back leg.

Vivi shrieks at him to stop, as does Lewis, but it’s the terrible scream of agony and taste of Arthur’s blood that has the fox reflexively snapping apart his jaws, rearing away and releasing the mangled limb, and the wolf it’s attached to.

In the following confusion the wolf manages to scrabble out of the kitchen, only two barely functioning legs to work with, slipping and scrambling down the maze of corridors, not even glancing at the shell shocked woman left in its path.

* * *

It takes a good minute after the flurry of confused activity for the three to regroup in the kitchen, and by then the injured canine is long gone.

Each one, especially Vivi, demands to know how Arthur had become so injured, Lewis yelling at Mystery for attacking and hurting him further when he’d called him in to  _help_ , Mystery countering how he’d been going for Vivi, Vivi chiming in that obviously he  _hadn’t_ been, everyone at each other’s throats before the realization hits that, wait,  _shit_ , where is he? He needs help! He’s hurt! What do they do? They have to find him! But he might hurt himself more if he sees them but he’d still be hurting himself regardless and ?????!  _What do??_

Luckily ( ~~not~~ ), there’s a scattered mess of a trail marking the wolf’s terrified flight, drops and splatters of heavy burgundy they don’t want to think on the origins of. Each corner has dark splatters where a failed turn had careened injured body into sharp wall. As they follow the torn carpet it’s obvious the adrenaline had quickly worn off, stains puddling closer and closer together until a firm smear bumps its way around a final corner and they’re met with a heartwrenching sight.

* * *

The wolf had hobbled and shaken its way as far as its exhausted limbs could take it, winding through the corridors seeking an exit, some sort of safe place to hide. Eventually, though, the maze had led to a dead end, an innocuous table with a single rose in a glass vase sat at the far wall. Hardly a den to howl home about, but against the wall its flank and back are covered, and it was just… so tired. Exhausted. Enough to flop unceremoniously to the floor, too in pain to do much else at that point. Wheezing and hacking, the haggard canine merely trying to get air into its burning lungs, overworked by injury and effort.

Head lolling, the sight of its pursuers hardly garners a reaction, too dizzy and in pain to care anymore. The wounds might not be  _fatal_ , yes, but head wounds bleed a lot and Mystery had done quite a number on its leg. That, coupled by the stress on his heart from the fear made for a truly distressing sight as they inch closer…

* * *

* * *

Art remembers the night like a fever dream.

Later full moons they will learn, have a better plan for how to handle the event. Ironically, it is only the one most vulnerable to the curse that keeps it company those first months, building trust between wolf and human. (They aren’t truly alone,  _ **hell** no_, the others let alone Arthur would never allow that, but hiding out of sight or smell is the closest thing to it.)

They eventually slowly reintroduce Lewis, then finally later Mystery.

The group spends their night in the courtyard, under open sky, the garden’s far walls obscured by trees and brush.

It’s spent relaxing, a nice calm night, maybe napping together or similar since the transformation is painful for him and  _very_ distressing for them to watch without being able to help. They try knocking him out once, but the wolf wakes dazed and confused and freaks out and Arthur refuses to ever do it again because he remembers almost accidentally biting Vivi in what even fewer than usual flashes he recalls (it was really more like a passing graze during a yelp, hardly even a bark let alone actual nip, but he won’t hear any of it if her safety versus his comfort is on the line.)

It never howls, despite being the trademark werewolf thing to do. Vivi wonders about this aloud (the others want to know too, they may discuss one full moon when it’s brought up). Arthur doesn’t say at first, but it’s because howling is for calling to pack and he has his right here around him. Maybe Vivi is gone one night (not by choice) and the wolf howls, distressed when there’s no reply, and they catch on.

**Author's Note:**

> Illustration!  
> http://answrs.tumblr.com/post/174837886065/all-ameri-king-werewolf-poor-pupper-boi


End file.
